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1/48 Sea King SH-3D # 66


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This is only the kit and the basic Eduard Zoom PE set.The floor could probably be fitted with a little more detail to enable a more busy and interesting painting. I also think there are more comprehensive interior PE-sets available.

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Finally the main fuselage halves are joined. It was much easier then I had feared and so far no filler and only minimal clean up will be required. However there's now a whole lot of parts to be fitted with smooth joins to build up the complete fuselage/hull for painting...

SeaKing_11.jpg

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Nice work Jorgen, you have inspired me to use the PE in my entry.......

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I thought the two lights in the front hull needed some improvement. I covered two flat pieces of plasticard in Bare Metal ultra bright chrome foil and glued behind them.

SeaKing_12.jpg

This was supposed to show the reworked sonar well without sonar, but nothing is really visible... Anyway it's about as empty as it looks, just a plain roof on top of it.

SeaKing_13.jpg

More of the major parts are coming together and time to clean up the joint line of the bottom hull.

SeaKing_14.jpg

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The main structure has come together really well. The sponsons(?) are built up as complete units with their struts, but are not yet permanently fitted to the fuselage to hopefully make painting a little easier.

SeaKing_15.jpg

The fit of the front lower parts of the canopy is disappointing, especially the left side. There is a large step out to the surface of the nose when the canopy is otherwise a tight and nice fit. I will have to sand off quite a lot of material from the nose to make it a smooth curve matching up nicely to the canopy. Not what I had expected. I hope there is enough material thickness to allow this.

SeaKing_16.jpg

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Thanks. Today has seen some more progress.

Sanding off the nose to match the canopy worked fine. I also glued a thin strip in front of the instrument panel to close a slight gap there as well, and now the canopy is a nice tight fit all around. It's probably time to glue it in place and mask the glass.

SeaKing_17.jpg

A few assemblies built up for painting. I will also clean up and prepare the rest of the separate parts before I start any serious painting.

SeaKing_18.jpg

Then I scratched the Yagi-antennas for the sponson struts, that seems to only be fitted to 66 for the Apollo missions. It may sound as if I know what they are, but that's not the case... :unsure: I may have to do some home work...

SeaKing_19.jpg

While I was at scratch building mode I also built the two 70 mm cameras and their mount. I think they may have ended up slightly over scale, but they will be ok for me. They are just built with the idea from the drawings in the decal instructions using various left over parts.

SeaKing_20.jpg

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Thanks for the encouragement. A little more progress today. Got past another scary moment by gluing the canopy finally in place. Then I masked it off using the Eduard pre cut mask. So far I have to say that the money I spent on this masking set must be one of the better investments I've done in after market parts for a project.

SeaKing_21.jpg

I sprayed the canopy framing with a thin coat of the same grey I used for the interior to avoid having white frames on the inside. Then I used a lighter grey as a sort of primer to check how the filled in side window looked (Hasegawa makes you use a clear part to blank off a window opening for this version) as I didn't want to miss fixing eventual ghost marks. It did look OK so it will be time to fit the last details before some real painting.

SeaKing_22.jpg

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We'll see if this is one of the more cocked up things I've done, or if it may work out reasonably well after all. I've never tried it like this before. What I want to achieve is a surface that is not plain uniform white but has some variations and life to it once painted. I could not get Lifecolor to flow well enough in my Iwata HP-CH for this type of work, I'm probably doing something wrong as I'm not that used to the paint, so I resorted to black automotive thin base paint for this. I obviously have a lot more to learn about this type of paintwork, but I had to start somewhere.

SeaKing_23.jpg

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And so the white is on. The effect of the pre shading is definitely there in real life, but very subtle. Unfortunately I can't seem to capture it on a photo (I just take pictures with the camera, I'm not even close to a photographer). I wouldn't have minded a tiny bit more contrast, but for a first try I'm happy.

SeaKing_24.jpg

SeaKing_25.jpg

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Looks great so far, well done. If the pre-shading is very subtle, then it's just right in my opinion... Lots of "old school" modellers often moan about pre-shading and that it's not realistic etc. But if kept subtle like yours, it certainly adds realism and depth as it simulates the slight undulations in the aircraft's skin and dirt build up around panel and rivet lines.

At a later stage, you can always make the effect a bit stronger around areas of higher dirt accumulation and fluid stains such as exhaust ports, lower edges of windows and doors, landing gear, fuel/oil fillers etc. by using oil paints.

Cheers

J

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